National Manufacturing Week – Back in Melbourne

Co-located with Austech, National Manufacturing Week (NMW) returns to Melbourne from 9-12 May as Australia’s largest gathering of manufacturing industry decision-makers under one roof.

Held at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, the four-day event will feature more than 30 speakers, more than 230 exhibitors and networking opportunities for those working along the manufacturing value chain.

Explore the Industry 4.0 Theatre

The 2017 NMW speaker program will feature a leading-edge series of seminars, showcases, interactive discussions, workshops and networking sessions addressing the critical touch points that will help drive the Industry 4.0 revolution including:

Product and Service Innovation: Manufactured products are changing radically, with the very nature of manufacturing shifting towards “manufacturing as a service” as part of complex horizontally and vertically integrated supply chains. NMW will explore advances in manufactured products, services and supply chain integration in Australia and abroad.

Technology Innovation: The pace of technological change is relentless and manufacturers must keep up with it to maintain their competitive edge. NMW’s extensive exhibition and content program will showcase innovations in advanced manufacturing design and technology. Through live tech demonstrations and hands-on sessions, attendees will have many opportunities to skill themselves around new techniques and technologies.

Process Improvement: Lean, Six Sigma, Continuous Improvement, Agile, Value Engineering… there are many methodologies out there that manufacturers can call upon to strategically improve processes and productivity. These case studies and interactive sessions will highlight process improvement approaches in manufacturing that deliver practical increases to efficiency and effectiveness.

Speaker highlights

Keynote Address: Scaling up Australian manufacturing – what will it take?
John Pollaers – Chairman, Australian Advanced Manufacturing Council
9 May, 10-40 – 11.15amMultinational enterprise co-ordinated global value chains make up over 80% of global trade, and the latest UN Conference on Trade and Development shows our local Australian participation rate in these chains is lower than 22 of the top 25 largest exporting countries. In his keynote address, John Pollaers will explore key characteristics of successful prime and SME manufacturers, emerging market opportunities, workforce development needs and recommended government actions to grow the scale of Australian manufacturing.

Keynote Address: A road map for unlocking future growth opportunities for Australia
Dr Keith McLean – Director, CSIRO Manufacturing
9 May, 12.00 – 12.35pm
With the world in the midst of a fourth industrial revolution, manufacturers must adapt to rapid technological change, an increasingly international global value chain, and the changing nature of manufactured product and service opportunities. This keynote address will explore the CSIRO’s roadmap for transforming Australia’s manufacturing industries into a highly integrated, collaborative and export-focussed ecosystem that provides high-value customised solutions within global value chains.

Australian Manufacturing Growth Centre’s Sector Competitiveness Plan
Dr Jens Goennemann – Managing Director, Australian Manufacturing Growth Centre
9 May, 11.20 – 11.55am
Australian manufacturing is operating in an increasingly globalised, competitive market. Tackling the challenge of how to position ourselves in light of this, the AMGC has released its first Sector Competitiveness Plan. Dr Jens Goennemann, AMGC Managing Director, will offer NMW delegates an overview of details how Australian manufacturing and its supported industries could be well positioned to add up to $36bn to the national economy over the next ten years.

Opportunities for Australian manufacturing SMEs to use collaborative robots
Andrew Pether – Head of Regional Technical Support, Universal Robots (Singapore)
12 May, 11.30 – 12.05pmAny gain in productivity can have a huge impact for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), which account for 99.7% of all Australian businesses. Automation offers significant advantages, but many manufacturing SMEs believe robots are out of their reach. A new generation of collaborative robots (cobots) is changing the game for smaller manufacturers, helping them compete more effectively, offering new opportunities for employees, and even improving worker’s safety. This presentation and live demonstration will focus on how cobots can benefit Australian manufacturing SMEs and put automation within their reach.

More than 30 speakers have been confirmed for NMW, with the full list available online.

Spotlight: Safety First Conference and Expo

Australia’s industrial safety event, the Safety First Conference & Expo, will also be co-located with NMW. Themed ‘Building a safety leadership culture from the ground up’, the 2017 event will provide delegates with the latest policy and regulation overviews, practical expert advisory sessions, industry case studies, interactive workshops and live demonstrations catered to safety practitioners in a variety of sectors including manufacturing.